Abundant Exact Soliton Solutions to the Space-Time Fractional Phi-Four Effective Model for Quantum Effects Through the Modern Scheme

The space-time fractional Phi-four (PF) equation is measured as a particular case of the familiar Klein-Fock-Gordon (KFG) model and plentiful quantum effects can be investigated through the PF model’s solutions. In this article, the auxiliary equation method (AEM) is employed to attain the traveling wave solutions and in this purpose, the complex wave transformation and Maple software are utilized. The constructed wave solutions are the form likely, hyperbolic, exponential, rational, and trigonometric functions as well as their integration. The physical significance of the obtained solutions for the specific values of the integrated parameters in the course of representing graphs and understood the physical phenomena. It is shown that the AEM is powerful, effective and simple and provide more general traveling wave solutions to the NLEEs

Willingness to pay/use for water supply and sanitation

This paper is a sociocultural case study of Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, on the willingness to pay/use for water supply and sanitation. “Willingness to use” is a relatively new concept which can be defined as the maximum amount of desire one can willingly express for a certain commodity or service. Many technical, institutional, financial and legal factors determine the willingness to use. Affordability combined with willingness to use leads to willingness to pay. The low “willingness to pay/use” is one of the reasons behind the unproportional success rate of much of the national and international efforts undertaken for safe water supply and sanitation. However safe water supply and sanitation is an urgent need in Bangladesh where the number of water borne diseases cases per 100,000 persons is 51,000, much higher than other developing countries (WHO, 1992). One of the causes behind this alarming situation is low willingness to pay/use. Along with a brief description of the present situation in Dhaka city, efforts are taken to identify the problems behind the low willingness to pay/use for water supply and sanitation in light of the sociocultural aspects. This may provide useful information for other developing countries. Some improvement strategies are also proposed

Properties of wood polymer nanocomposites impregnated with ST-co-EDA/nanoclay

Study has been made on manufactured wood polymer nanocomposites (WPNC) from Sesendok wood through impregnation of Styrene (ST), Ethyldimethylamine (EDA) and Montmorillonite (MMT) nanoclay. The impregnation process of the wood samples by vacuum-pressure method with in-situ polymerization of prepolymer mixture was used. The wood samples structural properties were investigated with Dynamic Mechanical Thermal Analysis (DMTA), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) found to be extensively changed upon ST-co-EDA/MMT impregnated. The mechanical properties of the WPNC samples were significantly increased by ST-co-EDA/MMT treatment. Thermal properties of WPNC samples were also evaluated using themogravimetric analysis (TGA) and an improvement in thermal stability was found for WPNC. WPNC has shown excellent resistance against weathering effect while exposed to surrounding. WPNC can be used to replace plastic and synthetice materials for its excellent properties and high market demand of the modern society

Impression Management and Employee Contextual Performance in Service Organizations (Enterprises)

This study aims to investigate the effect of impression management on employee contextual performance in service organizations using quantitative methods. The social influence theory, which explains the role of superior influence over the subordinate, served as the theoretical underpinning for the study. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted in line with positivism research philosophy. The accessible population of this study consists of one hundred selected service-oriented firms (four-star hotels, fast food restaurants, and travel agencies) operating in the southern part of Nigeria. The sample consists of middle managers, human resource managers, front desk officers, housekeepers, and customer relationship managers. Frequency distribution was used to analyze participants’ profiles, while linear regression was employed to analyze the formulated hypotheses. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 20.0 served as statistical software. Linear regression results suggest that self-promotion exerted a significant positive effect on co-worker support. Ingratiation demonstrated a significant positive effect on customer satisfaction. It appears that exemplification exerted a significant positive effect on enterprise compliance. The outcome of this study has demonstrated that traditional managerial skills can no longer hold water in contemporary service-oriented organizations because of the workplace's dynamic and changing technological structure. This study concludes that impression management can assist managers in influencing their employees positively to achieve organizational objectives. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2023-07-02-05 Full Text: PD

Evidence for spatially-responsive neurons in the rostral thalamus

Damage involving the anterior thalamic and adjacent rostral thalamic nuclei may result in a severe anterograde amnesia, similar to the amnesia resulting from damage to the hippocampal formation. Little is known, however, about the information represented in these nuclei. To redress this deficit, we recorded units in three rostral thalamic nuclei in freely-moving rats (the parataenial nucleus, the anteromedial nucleus and nucleus reuniens). We found units in these nuclei possessing previously unsuspected spatial properties. The various cell types show clear similarities to place cells, head direction cells, and perimeter/border cells described in hippocampal and parahippocampal regions. Based on their connectivity, it had been predicted that the anterior thalamic nuclei process information with high spatial and temporal resolution while the midline nuclei have more diffuse roles in attention and arousal. Our current findings strongly support the first prediction but directly challenge or substantially moderate the second prediction. The rostral thalamic spatial cells described here may reflect direct hippocampal/parahippocampal inputs, a striking finding of itself, given the relative lack of place cells in other sites receiving direct hippocampal formation inputs. Alternatively, they may provide elemental thalamic spatial inputs to assist hippocampal spatial computations. Finally, they could represent a parallel spatial system in the brain

Pre and Present COVID-19 Situation: A Framework of Educational Transformation in South Asia Region

This study is designed to support the development of strategies to recover from the disrupted impact of COVID-19 on HE institutes of the South Asian Region (SAR), as the nations in this region are severely cursed by poverty and unemployment. During the unusual phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, the face-to-face learning method is no longer appropriate, and the crisis leads to force on distance learning instead of physical learning. Like all other educational institutions, HE institutions are also in big trouble. Changes in educational structure change the pattern of academic work, which may have an inverse impact on acquiring knowledge and improving skills. Not only students but also a greater number of teachers at the HE institutions required to continue their service through online during this closure period. However, well digital infrastructure and digital contents appear to be the prime requirements for this educational transmission, which are extensively accessible in SAR countries. By following a mixed-methods strategy, the study specifically examines the impact of the pandemic on higher education in the South Asian Region, with an emphasis on the impact on learners, educators, and institutions, and to identify the measures that have been taken by these countries to survive and continue the education system with all the obstacles of the crisis. It concludes with some vital suggestions that may be applied to mitigate the crisis moment and assist in moving forward with more technological advancements for a new future. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2023-SPER-06 Full Text: PD

Fitting Multi-Layer Feed Forward Neural Network and Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average for Dhaka Stock Exchange Price Predicting

The stock market plays a vital role in the economic development of any country. Stock market performance can be measured by the market capitalization ratio as well as many other factors. The primary purpose of this study is to predict the movement of the stock market based on the total market capitalization of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) using autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models as well as artificial neural networks (ANN). The data set covers monthly time series data of total market capitalization from November 2001 to December 2018. This study also shows the best model for forecasting the movement of DSE market capitalization. The ARIMA (2,1,2) model is chosen from among the several ARIMA model combinations. From several artificial neural networks (ANN) models as a modern tool, a three-layer feed-forward topology using a backpropagation algorithm with five nodes in the hidden layer, one lag, and a learning rate equal to 0.01 is selected as the best model. Finally, these selected two models are compared based on the Root-Mean-Square Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), and Theil’s U statistic. The results showed that the estimated error of ANN is less than the estimated error of the traditional method. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2022-06-05-09 Full Text: PD

Effect of kenaf and EFB fiber hybridization on physical and thermo-mechanical properties of PLA biocomposites

Kenaf/empty fruit bunch/polylactic acid (kenaf/EFB/PLA) hybrid biocomposites were prepared using hot press technique. The ratio of fiber to polylactic acid was set at 60:40 with 1:1 ratio between kenaf and empty fruit bunch fibers. Physical, mechanical and thermal properties of hybrid biocomposites were subsequently characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, tensile and water absorption tests. Test results indicated that mechanically stronger fiber was able to support the weaker fiber. Hybrid fiber biocomposite had higher crystallinity as compared to single fiber biocomposite. Water absorption of hybrid composite was higher as compared to single fiber composite. Thermal result revealed that hybridization of fiber was not significantly influence the thermal properties of composites. However, the presence of two different fibers proposed good wettability properties, which could reduce the formation of voids at the fibers-polymer interface and produce composites with high stiffness and strength

Nanoparticle sensor for label free detection of swine DNA in mixed biological samples

We used 40 ± 5 nm gold nanoparticles (GNPs) as colorimetric sensor to visually detect swine-specific conserved sequence and nucleotide mismatch in PCR-amplified and non-amplified mitochondrial DNA mixtures to authenticate species. Colloidal GNPs changed color from pinkish-red to gray-purple in 2 mM PBS. Visually observed results were clearly reflected by the dramatic reduction of surface plasmon resonance peak at 530 nm and the appearance of new features in the 620–800 nm regions in their absorption spectra. The particles were stabilized against salt-induced aggregation upon the adsorption of single-stranded DNA. The PCR products, without any additional processing, were hybridized with a 17-base probe prior to exposure to GNPs. At a critical annealing temperature (55 °C) that differentiated matched and mismatched base pairing, the probe was hybridized to pig PCR product and dehybridized from the deer product. The dehybridized probe stuck to GNPs to prevent them from salt-induced aggregation and retained their characteristic red color. Hybridization of a 27-nucleotide probe to swine mitochondrial DNA identified them in pork–venison, pork–shad and venison–shad binary admixtures, eliminating the need of PCR amplification. Thus the assay was applied to authenticate species both in PCR-amplified and non-amplified heterogeneous biological samples. The results were determined visually and validated by absorption spectroscopy. The entire assay (hybridization plus visual detection) was performed in less than 10 min. The LOD (for genomic DNA) of the assay was 6 µg ml − 1 swine DNA in mixed meat samples. We believe the assay can be applied for species assignment in food analysis, mismatch detection in genetic screening and homology studies between closely related species